Akatsi North Freezes Teachers' Awards Programme

The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Akatsi North in the Volta Region, Mr. James Gunu, has made it known that the Assembly would not be organising any teachers' awards day celebration until further notice, because of the poor performance of students at the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the district.

Mr. Gunu explained that the recent BECE results recorded in the District was very poor, and that it did not give any form of encouragement to the Assembly to organise the teachers' awards programme, even though the large failures could not be blamed on the teachers alone.

According to him, the District Assembly, instead of organising such a programme, would rather meet the stakeholders to find solution to the poor performances.

According to Gunu, the District registered 370 students for the BECE, and scored only 17 percent, a development, the DCE said, was of much concern to the Assembly, and stressed the need for all stakeholders to consider the current results as one of the issues that affect the development of the area, wand that steps must be taken to reverse the trend.

Mr. Gunu, who made this known in an exclusive interview with The Chronicle at Ave-Dakpa, the district capital, recently, stressed the need for stakeholders to take the issues more seriously in the interest of the rapid development of the district.

According to the Akatsi North DCE, the Elinam Preparatory School, a private school, scored 100 percent pass in the same BECE, and yet, the public schools, who have trained teachers, rather performed abysmally.

He asked parents, students and other relevant stakeholders in education in the District to show more commitment towards the education of their wards, noting that the greatest legacy parents could leave behind was to invest in the education of their wards.

Mr. James Gunu regretted that parents who could effectively look after their children in school were rather looking up to the assembly for support.

The DCE further told The Chronicle that some parents buy expensive mobile phones for their wards, and regularly give them recharge units, yet the same parents turn to the assembly for support, claiming they are poor and cannot look after their children.

He observed that the government would continue to provide the needed teaching and learning materials, including infrastructure, with the aim of promoting effective teaching and learning.

He, however, noted that the provision of these facilities would be meaningless, if the stakeholders failed to play their roles.

He disclosed that the new Assembly was establishing a school for the physically challenged in the District, in collaboration with the Ghana Education Service (GES).

According to him, the seriousness he attached to the school project compelled him (DCE) to donate 295 Euros, given him as allowance for a conference he attended, to ensure the early start of the project.

Mr. Gunu also announced that 230 physically challenged persons had been registered, and 150 of them given financial support to the tune of GH¢28,000, adding that some of the beneficiaries would invest the money in trading, farming, and the purchase of crutches.